Signing With A Label Not A Recording End-all

March 13, 1987|By SCOTT BENARDE, Music Writer

Sometimes, getting a major record deal is just the start of a group`s frustration -- not the end. The trick is to keep the faith.

The saga of Crossfire Choir, a band that formed in West Palm Beach in 1982, is a good example of how a Cinderella story can take a twisted detour, turn into a Nightmare on Elm Street and eventually reclaim a happy ending of sorts.

Crossfire Choir`s self-titled debut album was finally released last month on the independent Passport Records label -- more than two years after the album was originally completed for a different record company.

The band had moved north from West Palm Beach in 1983. In 1984, the members signed a recording deal with Geffen Records. The band recorded its debut album in England, finishing it by January 1985. Crossfire Choir was living a rock `n` roll dream.

Everyone was excited with the results -- except the record company, which eventually shelved band and album. Key Geffen executives said the album contained no hit singles.

That is difficult to believe.

Crossfire Choir cross-pollinates the fury and fervor of Big Country and the Clash with hip, danceable American funk and Bo Diddley-type rhythms. Songs such as Nation of Thieves, Hell Hath No Fury and To Be Young fly off the turntable with fist-shaking emotion and conviction.

Of the Geffen debacle, keyboard player and guitarist Eddie Freeze says, ``We recorded an album that was too original, too on the edge for Geffen.

``No one over there knew what they were doing. They convinced us they were this really artistic label that had Peter Gabriel and XTC and John and Yoko.``

He adds that the executive who signed the band, ``didn`t know how to get the record company fired up about the album. It didn`t sound like anything on the radio at the time.``

A Geffen spokesman explains that what happened to Crossfire Choir is not unusual. The band was signed with all good intentions and a lot of money was invested. The company simply felt uncomfortable with the results.

Band co-founders Jay Pounders and Freeze met in 1976 at Forest Hill High School. Neither had sterling academic careers. In fact, neither graduated with their Class of 1980.

Instead, they got daytime jobs and immersed themselves in music, teaching themselves to play guitar and keyboards and performing with various cover bands.

It wasn`t until 1982, says Freeze, that ``some serious original music began taking shape`` on a four-track recording machine in Freeze`s apartment. ``We weren`t shooting for anything. We just did it. It came out of our guts,`` Freeze adds.

Pounders` influences were the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.

``Somewhere in between all that,`` he says, ``someone took a left turn and that`s where our record came out. We`re a pop-rock band with an eclectic side.``

Their first record, which they released independently in 1983, was a two- sided single that included the original versions of Disappointment and What`s it To Ya?, both of which are on the band`s debut album in far different form.

Radio stations K-102 (WCKO-FM, now Magic 102) and Z-97 (WDIZ-FM, now 97 KGR) played the record and gave the band a boost.

Around that time Pounders and Freeze added drummer Brad Peet, who had been playing with a West Palm Beach band calld Black Box Approach, and bass player Dennis Ambrose, and began performing at a Singer Island club called The Edge.

``The band was never much involved with the local scene,`` Freeze recalls. ``When we had the right combination of people we decided to move to New York to get signed. You`ve got to go where the record companies are.``

Pounders adds that, ``There were no other places (in South Florida) for us to play. To get a job you had to play three-quarters cover material. We were tired of playing Johnny B. Goode. We had to move north.``

FROM SOUTH FLORIDA TO NEW JERSEY

The quartet moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, in late 1983 and established themselves as an unpredictable, energetic live band. In fact, Hilly Kristal, the owner of the popular Manhattan rock club CBGB`s, signed on as the band`s manager after a number of impressive performances in his club.

In 1984, less than a year after moving north, Capitol, MCA, Sire, RCA and Geffen Records competed to sign Crossfire Choir.

The band chose Geffen.

``Geffen acted the most interested,`` Pounders says, ``said the most right things and seemed most committed to the band,`` offering Crossfire Choir a two-album deal with videos.

Because of the signing, Crossfire Choir was hired to open concerts for Culture Club and the Thompson Twins. Afterward, they joined renowned English producer Steve Lillywhite in London to record their debut. The album was finished in January 1985.

That`s when the dream began to sour.

Geffen executives said they didn`t hear any hits.

One year, one remixing, one rerecording and two producers later, Geffen gave up on the album.